1.24: The Best Worst Ship Ever - The Story Of The SS Great Eastern

This is the story of one of the greatest engineering achievements of the Victorian Age. It is also the story of a ship so far ahead of its time it was one of the greatest financial failures ever accounted in the modern world. At the time of its construction in the 1850s, the massive SS Great Eastern was the largest moving man-made object on Earth and was five times larger than the next largest ship.

In a tale of steam-punk meets real life, learn how this 692ft long iron beast used sails, paddle wheels, and the largest single propellor ever placed on a ship to drain the bank accounts of its investors and eventually connect the world in a magical new way.

She held 10,000 tons of coal in her belly, had steam engines weighing 1,300 tons powering her, and had room for 4,000 passengers. It was all for naught. Learn the how's, the why's, and the who's of this amazing ship in this episode.

[whitecompany]

Really enjoyed every minute of that podcast, the great eastern is a ship very close to my heart being broken up right outside my house on new ferry road nr birkenhead, a small piece of the ship still exists in the mud that can be seen at low tide, I have some rivets retrieved and a small plank of wood that came from the bar of the pub the great eastern built on the same road used some of the wood reclaimed from the ship. Sadly and illegally the pub was demolished just ten years ago to make room for a handful of crack dens for polish and Turkish immigrants. Also the shop LEWIS'S that advertised on the side closed its doors for the last time because of the Rona.

[helowako]

Thanks for the history lesson on this ship. My ancestor Josiah A. Caws was the very first pilot to take her on her maiden voyage to America :)

[theschultz-ster]

What an amazing thing! Every aspect of this story!
When I hear about things like this makes me feel kinda like I was born in the wrong time. To see this in that day had to be mind blowing!

[harrietharlow]

Great in depth look at the Great Eastern. I really like your characterisation of the Great Eastern as "steampunk meats real life". LOL

[vehdynam]

What a tragic story. Well done and most informative.

[EEVENEEVEN-vbqy]

This is really good. Thank you. A stupid flat earth mud flood channel brought me here. Because I stumbled upon the flat earth, mud flood channel by accident. They were talking about this very ship and saying how it was proof that the ancient Tarterians built it first and we just found it. What a bunch of crap. Glad I found this. Excellent work.

[bobmarchetti]

Laying the transcontinental cables alone made it one of the most importrant ships in history.

[gj]

Hi thank you so much for this. This is about the great eastern but there are so many stories rapt up in this- the earliest telecom and globalization, pitfalls of investing, engineering etc. don’t lose heart about the small number of views!!!

[maximilianavdeev]

What an amazing boat. Lord gooch said it best at the end “she deserved better.”

[rickbronx]

Visited Brunels ss great Britain last year in UK. Restored and in a dry dock museum. Really interesting place. Very informative.

[uslines]

Thanks for this fine documentary. The GE always fascinated me.

[BeeF]

man had they built it as a early bulk freighter maybe it would have had more success?

[mrmods]

It's a shame that there aren't many interior photos of the Great Eastern ...I would love to see them...

[nqrdckz]

Love the podcast. I understand YouTube might not be the best platform to listen to it on, but it is my preferred.
I do have a pausing problem listening to them. It happens only on your content. About every other sentence, a two second pause.
I wonder if you can decrease your audio quality or something.

[marksherratt]

Hello. Wrought iron not cast iron . When you get such an massive mistake it makes you think the rest may be wrong. Regards Mark

[californiadreaming]

I find it disappointing that this video begins by describing Great Eastern in a rather negative light. Great Eastern was, without question, one of the greatest ships ever built, DECADES ahead of her time, an engineering marvel relative to the technology of her time and a PIONEER through and through. Conceptually, she is worthy of praise and admiration ONLY, nothing less. Great Eastern, from the perspective of design, quite literally paved the road for ALL the big ships which wouid follow her. Without Great Eastern there wouid have been NO Lusitania, NO Titanic and NO Queen Mary.
Consider: what do Great Eastern, Concorde and Honda V65 Sabre all have in common? Answer: machines which pushed the technological envelope and created a new standard which others would have to follow. Great Eastern proved that extremely large passenger ships were not only possible, but that they were safer and more efficient than their smaller predecessors. Concorde proved that supersonic passenger travel was not only possible but contemporary. (make no mistake, supersonic passenger travel is NOT going away). 1984 Honda V65 Sabre, with it's top speed of 184 MPH slapped Kawasaki in the face saying: "You guys think you're slick with your 150 mph superbike? Beat THAT!!"
(Interestingly, Suzuki eventually DID.)
Long live the pioneers.

[AtsumuMiya]

It's funny how no one says this: SS Great Eastern sustained the same damage as RMS Titanic and didn't sink. Just Sayin.

[jeffbrinkerhoff]

Came for the cars.. great channel. I had a book on Brunel and the transatlantic cable when I was a kid so my interest was piqued when seeing the thumbnail.. you tell a good story.

[beckyleheny]

By great grandparents came to America on its maiden voyage.

[williambarry]

Im thinking a 600' ship in the 1850s would be the equivalent of a 2500' today.